new house?

No, we're not moving. Our latest paint project in the family room is finished (we really like the way it turned out), and that got me to thinking about all the things we've done to this house since we moved in 10 years ago. Here's a list:

• removed wallpaper from EVERY room in the house
• painted all the walls we stripped wallpaper off of
• repainted a couple of rooms
• replaced chair railing in baby's room
• replaced the sliding door in the family room
• installed new windows throughout the house
• installed blinds in the basement bedrooms
• installed A/C
• remodeled kitchen
• remodeled master bathroom
• installed tile in all the entries
• installed new front door
• installed sump pump
• installed new carpet everywhere except the basement
• replaced sink, countertop, and fixtures in boys bathroom
• installed new lighting fixtures in several rooms
• installed new front storm door
• installed new half of automatic sprinkler system to connect to secondary water

That's probably a pretty good listing of the major differences between then and now. With all that, our house should feel "new", right?!

birthday boy

Just count those candles -- 5! Our Jacob is growing up so quickly! He was so excited for his birthday that he started a count down about two weeks ago and starting crossing out each day on the calendar till his birthday. We celebrated his birthday by going to Lagoon for the day with Grandma V., Sarah, David, and Eric. Jacob rode tons of rides and loved everything. When we got home we had pizza, lemonade, watermelon and chocolate cake with ice cream. Grandpa V. and Alan & Heidi's family joined us all for dinner and present opening, so Jacob really knew he was having a party. Here are a few other snapshots of Jacob's celebration: Mark & I always think of Jacob as our miracle boy, for more reasons than I will share here on the blog, but he spent some time in the NICU when he was born because he got fluid in his lungs and had a hard time breathing and getting enough oxygen. I was also very sick after he was born and wasn't allowed in the NICU to see him -- that was hard. He was also a "rainbow" baby, because he was born after Cole died. I believe that ALL babies are miracles, but it just seemed there were some special circumstances surrounding Jacob's birth into our family. He is a good natured fun little person that we are very grateful to have in our family! Happy Birthday Jacob!!

zoo

Last week I took the kids to the zoo. We had a great time! As many of you know, Hogle Zoo isn't very big and there's not tons of animals there -- its very basic -- so our 2 1/2 hour visit was perfect! Long enough to see everything and short enough to keep everyone's attention and good moods! This was Jacob's first visit to the zoo -- I felt really bad when I realized that he'd never been to the zoo and he's almost in kindergarten -- but now we've been, so all is well, and I can feel like a good mom again!

The tiger was fun! He paced around his pen for awhile and then decided to swim in his pool and play with his ball. He made a HUGE splash right in front of Jared & Jacob -- they loved it. We actually had a hard time pulling ourselves away from watching this guy play.
Ryan & Jacob take a break on a coupla tigers!
The giraffe was another favorite because he was so close. He just stood there enjoying his leafy greens while we munched on some snacks too.

How can we not take a picture of our Ryan-o-cerous by the rhinocerous? He (the rhino) was too lazy to even move. He's the big lump back by the wood fence in the picture.
The kids were looking forward to seeing the elephants. There were two elephants out and about that day. Apparently they do some sort of elephant show a couple of times a day, but we had other animals to see, so we didn't stay to check it out.
The zoo has lots of monkeys and apes. I can't remember what kind of monkey this black and white guy is, but since he was outside instead of behind glass walls, it was easier to take his picture. We all loved the monkeys -- especially Matthew -- because they are always climbing, swinging, and eating and having lots of fun.
You always have to get a drink from the lion's mouth at the zoo!

no more training wheel

That's not a typo in the title -- I really do mean, no more training wheel! Just a couple weeks ago, we took this little bike down from the garage so Jacob could learn to ride. We looked all over for the training wheels and only came up with one --oh well, one will just have to do. Since then he's been riding around with that one training wheel and on Sunday announced that it was time to take it off. Ryan helped him take it off and off he went riding around the driveway happy and proud as could be! Way to go Jacob!

fishing

The kids got to try their hand at fishing for the first time on Friday. We went to a little pond that is stocked with fish that is near Alan & Heidi's house. Grandpa V. & Eric brought the poles and worms and provided the lessons -- a big THANK YOU to you both! I think the kids were fascinated by the worms getting put on the hooks -- check out Jacob in this picture below. After some patient waiting, Jared felt the tug and started to reel in his first fish.
Ta-da! There it is! He was so excited! Since we were doing catch & release, Jared & Grandpa extracted the hook and tossed the fish back in the pond.
A minute later, Ryan came up with a fish too! This was actually his second catch of the day, since I missed the first one.
Matthew had no patience for fishing, so he spent some time by the waterfall picking up rocks.
Thanks, Heidi, for getting us all together!

the cost of shopping with kids

I usually do not take all four kids grocery shopping with me, although I normally have Matthew with me and Jacob too about half the time. I can usually get away with buying a small bag of goldfish to keep Matthew entertained and a donut for Jacob and then stick to my list. Those two small treats cost about $2. Yesterday, I took all four kids with me to the store. Here's what we bought that I would not have purchased if they had all stayed home:

• box of chocolate donut holes
• cheez-it crackers
• 3 bottles of lemonade
• cantaloupe
• bacon
• Pringles --sour cream 'n onion
• goldfish crackers

Total cost: about $17. Good grief!! It's definitely easier on the budget to leave the kids at home.

this weeks happenings

This is the last week of swimming lessons for the boys (swimming lessons are everyday for two weeks). They have had good teachers this session and small classes. Jacob is happily becoming a little fish. We think Ryan finally passed level 3 (we'll know tomorrow for sure), and unfortunately Jared came up short on the swimming merit badge -- diving and flip turns being the root of all evil there, but its been good practice anyway.

We are trying to re-paint our family room, so we had to take the wallpaper strip down that went around the ceiling. I hate wallpaper. Mostly because it is so dang hard to take off. I don't know why we put this border up in the first place 10 years ago, the room looks tons better just having it off. Now we are having a hard time getting the right color of paint. Grrrr. The next challenge will be the actual painting and keeping all the little hands and bodies out of the wet paint. I hope it all turns out well. If we can't move, we might as well try to fix up, right?

Mark is STILL fighting a sore throat -- we are both sick of him being sick. Since we've still had a few cool days, the boys have had plenty of game time, but have also had some great afternoon fun outside with friends -- Ryan fried himself while using the slip n slide at a friends house earlier this week and his shoulders are still pink. I think he'll remember the sunscreen next time. Dentist and ortho appointments have been taken care of for the week and I've done a TON of laundry and half the ironing that has been piling up. I've done the weekly Costco run and now I'm headed to the grocery store for the things I can't get at Costco or don't want to buy in mass quantity. I managed a quick trip to the mall yesterday simply because I was having withdrawals and needed an "out" -- although I had 3 kids with me (not exactly bliss!) Tomorrow Ryan is heading to Cub Scout Day Camp and then we'll all be heading out to Heidi's for dinner and fishing.